Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Industry: Restaurant
Implemented apps: Accounting
Number of users: 10
Number of employees: 15
Hosting type: Cloud
Every good pub has a great story to tell, and The Duke of Lisbon is no exception. After overcoming a pandemic that seemed to change the restaurant industry forever, the pub faced another major challenge: its accounting depended on an external firm in another state. This resulted in poor visibility into their results, delayed tax calculations, and an inability to link purchases to the supplies received. With Odoo, The Duke brought this process in-house and regained control of its finances.
The Challenge: Complex Manual Processes and Decentralization
The Peña family's restaurant tradition began in Chiapas 40 years ago. After helping grow the family's restaurants in the region, Luis traveled to Mexico City, where he faced numerous challenges along the way. His first hurdle was navigating the September 19, 2017 earthquake, followed by the 2020 pandemic. During this time, a British customer approached him with an idea: open a pub just like the ones found on English streets. That is how The Duke of Lisbon was born—a project now 5 years in the making that is expanding with the opening of a second pub.
However, Luis and his restaurant group faced a third challenge: accounting was still managed manually. The Duke had to send every invoice, receipt, and order via postal mail to an external accounting firm in Chiapas. This firm handled accounting for three restaurants in Chiapas and the pub in Mexico City. Such a fragmented workflow created several bottlenecks:
Lack of financial visibility: The group could not track created accounting accounts or access financial reports.
Operational and tax delays: Sending invoices by mail to Chiapas caused delays in calculating taxes, leading to payments being made right at or near the deadline. This limited strategic decision-making for the business.
Loss of traceability: Purchases from suppliers were made via WhatsApp whenever the chef noticed supplies were low. It was also difficult to identify which team member placed an order, whether an invoice had been paid, or if an order had been received.
After two years of operating with unclear accounting and realizing the envelopes sent were becoming far too large, Luis decided it was time to find a solution.
The Solution: Choosing Odoo as a Strategic Partner
The Duke of Lisbon evaluated many market options, but none fit their needs: an ERP capable of complying with Mexican electronic accounting regulations, backed by a strong support team, and customizable at a competitive cost per user. Tired of searching, Luis found what he was looking for while walking through Mexico City and spotting a distinctive brick building.
Curious about the company, he researched the platform and discovered an ERP that checked every box. Odoo not only offered a competitive price, but Luis also saw firsthand the company's commitment to growth in the region. Upon seeing the size of the consulting and development teams alongside the platform's competitive pricing, Luis decided Odoo was the right ERP for his five restaurants.
With guidance from the Odoo team, the initial project onboarding took approximately 40 hours dedicated exclusively to structuring the accounting setup. It was not a simple process; several areas needed resolution, such as configuring the XML file reader to streamline the process and avoid manual data entry. The DIOT file showed an error, and all bank data had to be uploaded.
However, Luis recognizes that Odoo is a dynamic company. His consultant adapted to every change and found ways to solve his needs. Just like the software, the Odoo Mexico team adapted smoothly to his requests.
"I value the system's intuitiveness, the speed of technical support, and the constant platform updates."
The Results: Real-Time Control and Multi-Company Management
With Odoo, The Duke of Lisbon and every restaurant in the group transformed their accounting management. They went from sending huge folders of orders and invoices to an external firm to gaining full control over their tax and accounting workflows.
Today, Luis manages his five restaurants from a single multi-company Odoo instance through a fully digital, automated process:
Real-time accounting information: Luis manages his restaurants on a single platform without hiring an external firm. Keeping invoices up to date in Odoo allows for weekly bank reconciliations and immediate visibility into balance sheets and profit and loss statements. Tax calculation time was also reduced to just one week.
Efficient remote collaboration: Even though the accountant is based in Chiapas, she can simultaneously view and process the accounting information created in Mexico City. There is no need to wait for postal mail—everything lives in the cloud. With Odoo's access permissions, no additional accounts can be created without his knowledge.
End-to-end purchase traceability: Through integrated system processes, the team can create purchase orders and link each invoice to received supplies and the requesting staff member. Although WhatsApp is still used, the Odoo chatter provides full visibility.
Centralized multi-company management: All 5 restaurants are now managed from a single database. For invoicing, switching company profiles or updating tax details for each restaurant takes just one click.
"Having an ERP is essential to gain order, structure, and centralized information. Odoo allows us to optimize expenses and focus on activities that bring the most value to the company."
Next Steps: An Integrated Point of Sale for the Entire Operation
The restaurant group continues to strengthen its digital structure. Its next goal is to implement Odoo's restaurant-focused Point of Sale before the end of the year, bringing operational control for every restaurant and pub into a single platform: Odoo.
